School Engagement Enhanced Through Mindful Instruction

• In Event: Antecedents and Consequences of Academic Engagement

Abstract

This study explored the change of children’s school engagement throughout an intervention that incorporates different instructional methods with a socio-scientific unit about wolves. Children were asked to role-play Wolf Management Agency to learn this unit and make a final decision about the live hood of a community and a pack of wolves nearby. Analyses of students’ self reports on the pre- and post-intervention questionnaires revealed that children who learned the unit through collaborative reasoning discussions within small groups (CG) became more engaged in discussions than children who learned the unit through teachers’ whole class direct instruction (DI). Compared with students who did not learn the unit at all, both CG and DI students reported higher engagement in reading and writing.

Authors

• Jingjing Sun, University of Montana

• Richard C. Anderson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign